– Scripture:

                       Keeping the Commandments

God, your God, is, above all, a compassionate God. In the end, he will not abandon you, he won’t bring you to ruin, and he won’t forget the covenant with your ancestors which he swore to them. Ask questions. Find out what has been happening all these years before you were born. From the day God created man and woman on this Earth, and from the horizon in the east to the horizon in the west—as far back as you can imagine and as far away as you can imagine has as great a thing as this ever happened? Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? Have people ever heard, as you did, a god speaking out of the middle of the fire and living to tell the story? Or has a god ever tried to select for himself a nation from within a nation using trials, miracles, and war, putting his strong hand in, reaching his long arm out, a spectacle awesome and staggering, the way God, your God, did it for you in Egypt while you stood right there and watched? You were shown all this so that you would know that God is, well, God. He’s the only God there is. He’s it. He made it possible for you to hear his voice out of Heaven to discipline you. Down on Earth, he showed you the big fire, and again you heard his words, this time out of the fire. He loved your ancestors and chose to work with their children. He personally and powerfully brought you out of Egypt to displace bigger, stronger, and older nations with you, bringing you out and turning their land over to you as an inheritance. And now it’s happening. This very day. Know this well, then. Take it to heart right now: God is in Heaven above and on Earth below. He’s the only God there is. Obediently live by his rules and commands, which I’m giving you today so that you’ll live well and your children after you—oh, you’ll live a long time in the land that God, your God, is giving you.

                           Deuteronomy 4:31–40 MSG

– Reflection:

Keeping the statutes and ordinances that God has given. It is one of the biggest themes throughout the book of Deuteronomy. The book makes clear that part of being God’s covenant people is keeping the statutes and ordinances that God has given. They are not imposed out of a sense of control or manipulation. Instead, we follow them out of gratitude for what God has done for us. This passage portrays a sense of awe and wonders at what God has done: “Has anything so great as this ever happened or has its like ever been heard of?”

Where do we go from here?

We are not freed from responsibility to and for one another. God’s freedom is the freedom to join the covenant community to live our lives in ways that carry out God’s freedom for all people. Living this way is a joyful response to all God has done for us.

Our Prayer for Today

Father, we offer our lives to you in gratitude. Help us to follow your commandments and to see the freedom they offer. Help us to do all that you call us to do. Amen